Fountain of Youth surfboards

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I'm hoping Bruce will get some pics / conversation going here on Swaylocks regarding the new direction he's going with his retro-influenced "Fountain-of-Youth" surfboards! And love to hear from anyone who is riding his shapes these days.

This 8'6" has a cut lapped Volan cloth using Vinylester Resin. Vinylester wss originally developed and used in boat building. The net result is a very strong classic looking glass job. A 15" long Fins Unlimited fin box is installed on all V8's 8 ft. and longer to allow for variable fin positioning using a wide based, high aspect, hand foiled Volan Greenough Stage IVA fiberglass fin.

The original Vee Bottom designs remained unrealized and sometimes bad rapped if not chastised during their short span sandwiched between the refined & proven longboards of yesteryear and the modern glass slippers of today.

Many of the early vee bottoms were known as "spinout queens". The problem was so prevalent a lot of older surfers still remember them as the boards that didn't work.

The lopped off wide back tails carved from traditional longboard blanks (that's all there was at the time) presented new design challenges for skilled shapers worldwide. Some guys worked it out well, while others produced disasterous results. The proliferation of very wide based, ultra deep (10" to 13") fins were an almost immediate solution for what was (really) a board design deficiency.

Revisiting what I now call "The Possibilities of the In Between" the rewards of combining what we have learned since, and what we were strviving for then, the soul searching is starting to pay off and the rewards become more apparent day by day. Greenough's Crowned Tail for "turns from hell" is faithfully incorporated into my design and the feedback has been really great.

As always, one man's magic is another man's poison, and this 'ride' is open to individual interpretation.

Still, it's refreshing to make something a bit off the grid that people can embrace and tell me how much fun they are having on these boards.

V8's are currently available from 6'6" to 8'6". Thicknesses vary from 2-1/2" up to 3-1/4" depending on length and personal preference. Matt Wessen has a 7'6", I threw a 6'6" to Chad Marshall and they traded off one day awhile back at Zuma.... Chad's feedback: "the 6'6" went f'n mental".